Joel Embiid on Terry Rozier: ‘Too bad he’s so short that he couldn’t get to my face’

The pair got into an altercation at the end of the second quarter.

Terry Rozier may have found himself a new postseason foe Monday night. The Celtics guard got into a small shoving match with 76ers center Joel Embiid after Embiid tried to wrest the ball away from him in the second quarter of Game 4.

“I was trying to get the ball to keep the game flowing because I felt we had an advantage,” Embiid said in his postgame press conference. “We were on a run, so I just wanted to keep it going . . . He kept the ball away from me.”

With two-and-half minutes remaining in the half, an offensive foul was called against Rozier as he was trying to get around 76ers guard JJ Redick. Once the refs had whistled the play dead, Embiid attempted to snatch the ball from Rozier’s hands.

Advertisement

But Scary Terry wasn’t having any of it.

A scuffle ensued, and the pair had to be separated. Both were issued technical fouls.

“He tried to punch me twice,” Embiid said. “Too bad he’s so short that he couldn’t get to my face. I didn’t understand why it was a double technical because I was just trying to get the ball. He was the one trying to swing.”

Embiid also told reporters he likes “getting into that type of stuff” because it boosts his energy and takes his game to another level.

Rozier didn’t have much to say about Embiid or the interaction in his postgame remarks. The 24-year-old said he’s “just out there having fun” — a similar response to the one he gave when asked about his squabbles with Bucks guard Eric Bledsoe in Boston’s last series.

“To set the record straight, I wake up every morning not worried about nobody,” Rozier said. “No man on this Earth. We were out there having fun. It’s just part of a basketball game. That’s all it is.”